hem. Twenty feet from me there was a pile of golden rock--chunks
of gold the size of a man's fist, or his head, and larger, heaped
loosely into a mound ten feet high.

Beyond this pile of ore, near the center of the room, twenty feet above
the concrete floor, there was a large hanging electrolier. It cast a
circular glow downward. Under it I saw a low platform raised a foot or
two above the ground. A giant electro-microscope was hung with its
twenty foot cylinder above the platform. Its intensification tubes were
glowing in a dim phosphorescent row on a nearby bracket. A man sat in a
chair on the platform at the microscope's eyepiece.

I saw all this with a brief glance, then my attention went to a white
stone slab under the giant lense. It rested on the platform floor, a
two-foot square surface of smooth white marble. A little roped railing a
few inches high fenced it. And in its center lay a fragment of golden
quartz the size of a walnut!

There was a movement across my line of vision. Two figures advanced. I
recognized both of them. And I strained at my bonds; mouthed the gag
with futile, frenzied effort. I could no more than writhe; and I
couldn't make a sound. I lay, after a moment exhausted, and stared with
horror.

The familiar hunched figure of Polter advanced toward the microscope.
And with him, his huge hand holding her wrists, was Babs. They were
nearly fifty feet from me, but with the light over them I could see them
clearly. Babs' slim figure was clad in a long skirted dress--pale blue,
now, with the light on it. Her long black hair had fallen disheveled to
her shoulders. I couldn't see her face. She did not cry out. Polter was
half dragging her as she resisted him; and then abruptly she ceased
struggling.

I heard his guttural voice. "That iss better."

They mounted the platform. They were very small and seemed to be far
away. I blinked. Horror surged over me. Their figures were dwindling as
they stood there. Polter was saying something to the man at the
microscope. Other men were nearby, watching. All were normal, save
Polter and Babs. A moment passed. Polter was standing by the chair in
which the man at the microscope was sitting. And Polter's head barely
reached its seat! Babs was clinging to him now. Another moment and they
were both tiny figures down by the chair-leg. Then they began walking
with swaying steps toward the miniature railing of the white slab. The
white reflection from the slab pl