Drake tried to call a warning. But they did not hear him. He was still weak and faint. He got up on one elbow. He gestured frantically. He saw the tremendous figure of Togaro leap at father. Togaro's growth had stopped. He was as tall as father. His fist caught father and knocked him backward. He would have stamped upon Drake, but Ahlma saw the intention. She hurled herself at Togaro. Fighting, tearing at his face with her hands. And father assailed him also. Drake saw the three huge figures swaying above him; Togaro, with a foot twice the length of Drake's body, was trying to get near enough to stamp upon him. Drake saw that father and the girl were being worsted. He tried to get to his feet, but he was too weak and dizzy. He sank back. Then Ahlma broke away. She seized the lamp and flung it. The lamp fortunately was extinguished as it crashed to the floor. The room with its drawn shades, in spite of the daylight outside, was too dim for the small figure of Drake to be seen. And then Ahlma began screaming. Togaro cursed. Perhaps he thought there was help near by. Whatever he thought, he flung father from him, and turning in the dimness, he fumbled for the door. Snatched it open; ran through the hall and dashed from the house. CHAPTER VIII _Death of the Giants_ We returned to our normal size; and found Drake, father and Ahlma together. Father was shaken by his encounter with Togaro, but unharmed. Drake was bruised, battered and bleeding; but with his youth and strength he soon recovered. The afternoon wore away. We had decided to start for the island as soon as it was dark. There was no sign of Togaro. I talked that afternoon for more than an hour with Dianne. She told me many things of her strange world. Drake talked with Ahlma. I heard him say once, "You saved my life--he would have stamped upon me." I recall with what a singular mixture of emotion I touched Dianne's hand. My adored little sister? A strange foreign princess? The two ideas, so wholly different, mingled in my heart. I recall, too, the flush on Drake's face, his low eager voice as he talked with Ahlma. The darkness closed in around King's Cove. We were ready to start. Father, with an automatic in his hand, followed us down to the boathouse. We had tried to have him summon a car and go to the village earlier in the afternoon. Or summon help. "Nonsense, lads--I can take care of myself. We've got to keep this secret. Why, suppose the authorities were to order that atom destroyed!" The channel was black. The sea was calm, with a sullen, oily calmness. No giants had been reported. The lights of occasional patrol planes passed overhead; out at sea the lights of the waiting battleship were plainly visible. Drake and I rowed swiftly, with the two girls huddled in the stern. I was tense, my mind roving upon a thousand weird unnatural dangers which at any moment might come upon us. But there seemed nothing.