dly winded, with Alan
and me heavily panting behind her. "There are trees--thick
trees--quite near where the boat lands. We can get in them and hide
and change our size to smallness. But hurry, for we will need so much
time when we are small!"

The little spread of town and the shining lake remained always to our
right. In five minutes we were past most of the houses. A patch of
woods, with thick interlacing treetops about our own height, lay
ahead. It extended a few hundred feet over to the lake shore. The
sailboat was heading in close. There was a broad, starlit roadway at
the edge of the lake, and a dock there at which the boat was preparing
to land.

Would we be in time? I suddenly feared not. To get small now, with
distance lengthening between us and the boat, would be disastrous. And
where was Polter?

Abruptly we saw him. There had been only little people visible to us;
none of our own height. The lake roadway by the dock was brightly
starlit. As we approached the intervening patch of woods it seemed
that a crowd of little people were near the dock. Polter must have
been sitting. But now he rose up. We could not mistake his hunched
thick figure, the lump on his shoulders clear in the starlight with
the gleaming lake as a background. The crowd of little figures were
milling around his knees. In the silence of the night the murmur of
their voices floated over to us.

"There he is!" Alan gasped. We all three checked our running; we were
at the edge of the patch of woods. "By God, there he is! Let's get
larger! Rush him! Why that's only a few hundred feet over there!"

But Babs? Where was Babs?

"Alan! Down!" I crouched, pulling Alan and Glora with me. "Don't let
him see us! He'd know at once--and where is Babs? Can't rush him,
Alan. He'd see us coming--kill her--"

* * * * *

Of all the strange events which had been flung at us, I think this
sudden crisis now most confused Alan and me. To get larger, or
smaller? Which? Yet something must be done at once.

Glora said, "We can get through the woods best in this size. And not
be seen--get closer to the landing."

We crouched so that the little treetops were always well over us. The
patch of woods was dark. A soil of black loam was under us, a thick
soft underbrush reached our knees, and lacy, flexible leaves and
branches were at our shoulder height. We pushed them aside, forcing
our way softly forward. It was not far. The li