There, lying beside two heaps of coarse cloth and a mound of horrible-smelling stuff that he recognized as the dab of termite-paste, they saw two glistening steel bars. About five feet long, they seemed to be, and half an inch in diameter. The wire-ends which, a few moments ago, they had been forced to handle with tweezers for fear of losing! Jim picked one up and drew it back for a pretended spear-thrust. He laughed, vibrantly, eagerly. "I'm just beginning to realize it's really happened, and that the hunt has started. Bring on your bugs!" Dennis stooped and picked up his spear. It was unwieldy, ponderous, the weight of that long, not-too-thin steel bar. Jim's great shoulders and heavy arms were suited well enough to such a weapon; but Dennis could have wished that his were some pounds lighter. They turned their attention to the evil-smelling hill of termite-ointment. With many grimaces, they took turns in smearing each other from head to feet with the repulsive stuff. Then they knotted about them the yard-square pieces of fabric--once sheer silk gauze, now cloth as stiff and cumbersome as sail-cloth. They faced each other, ready for their trip. The heavens above them, trailing up and up into mysterious darknesses, suddenly became closer and sparkled with a diamond sheen. Stretching off and up out of sight was a mountainous column that might conceivably be a wrist. "Matt's looking at us through a magnifying glass," concluded Denny. * * * * * Abruptly the ridged bad-lands about them began to vibrate. Thunder crashed and roared around their ears. "He's trying to say something to us," said Denny, when the awful din had ceased. "Oh, Matt--we're ready to go!" Jim echoed his shout. Then Denny snorted. "Fools! Our voices are probably pitched way above the limit of audibility. He can't hear us any more than we can understand him!" They gazed at each other. More than anything else that had happened, this showed them how entirely they were cut off from their old world. Truly, in discarding their normal size, they might as well have been marooned on another planet! A tremendous, pinkish-gray wall lowered near them, split into segments, and surrounded their plateau. The plateau was lifted--with a dizzy swiftness that made their stomachs turn. With sickening speed the plateau moved forward. The texture of the heavens above them changed. The sun--the one thing in their new universe that seemed unchanged in size and aspect--shone down on them. The plateau came jarringly to rest. Great cliffs of what seemed black basalt gleamed high over them. Matt had carried them out of the building, and had set the patty-dish on the black leather seat of his automobile. There was a distant thundering, as though all the worlds in the universe but Earth were being dashed to pieces. That was the motor starting. And then, as the car moved off, Jim and Dennis realized their mistake in choosing a patty-dish to ride in!