g.

They were fumbling there now. He hauled out an opalescent vial of the
diminishing element. But his black vial was gone. His annoyance turned
into fear as he searched for it in the other compartments of his belt. I
had thought that he had more than one black vial, but now it seemed not.
His huge face was swept with the panic of terror. He glanced wildly
around him.

Through the open end of my gully I saw in the distance, miles away, the
enlarging figure of Alan rising up. Then it ducked in back of a distant
rising peak. Polter undoubtedly saw it. He was fumbling with his
opalescent vial. In his confused panic he made the mistake of taking the
diminishing drug and instantly seemed to regret it. His curse rumbled
above me. His glance went down to the rocks at his feet, and there he
saw his black vial lying with its stopper out. His body already was
beginning to dwindle. He stooped, seized the vial, and took the
enlarging drug. The shock of it mode him stagger; momentarily he
disappeared from my line of vision but I could hear his panting breath
and the unsteady pound of his footsteps.

I still held that huge round ball of the drug. I seized a loose stone
and frantically knocked off a chunk-heaven knows how much. I shoved it
into my mouth, chewed and hastily swallowed it. And with the lurching,
swaying, shrinking gully closing in upon me, I ran to get out of its
distant end.

I was heading toward where Alan and his father were hiding. I came from
the gully into the open, just as the walls closed behind me. The whole
scene was a dizzying, blurred sway of contracting movement. I saw that I
was in a circular valley now some five miles in diameter, with its
jagged enclosing walls rising sheerly perpendicular out of sight in the
haze overhead.

Polter had staggered backward. I saw him a mile or so away. His back at
that instant was turned to me. He was now no more than three or four
times my own height. He scrambled against the valley cliff wall as
though trying to find a foothold to climb up it. He went a little way,
but fell back.

Near me, Alan and old Dr. Kent suddenly appeared. I was larger than
they. Alan gasped with surprise.

"You, George! You got Babs--"

"Yes--Babs is around somewhere! Stay down here! Don't lose her in size!
Stay small! Search and--"

"But, George--"

"I'll tackle Polter. I've taken--God, I don't know how much I've taken
of the drug!"

They were shrinking down by my boot tops. Alan