x-foot height; then larger, until in a
moment it stopped. I stood peering at it, trying to gauge its size in
relation to me. I wanted so intensely now to be normal to Babs. The
cage seemed about ten feet high. A little less, possibly. I barely
tasted the pellet, and replaced it carefully in the vial. I could only
hope its efficacy would be preserved.

I had to chance that I would not be seen now crossing this billowy
expanse. I ran. The rope strands of the fabric now had spaces between
their curving surfaces. The cage was a shining golden house, set on
this wide rolling area. Far in the distance there was a blur--Polter's
reclining body.

I reached the cage. It was a room about ten feet square and equally as
high. Walled solid, top and bottom, and on three sides. The front was
a lattice of bars, with a narrow six-foot-high doorway, standing open
now.

I dashed in. The interior was not wholly bare. There was a
metal-wrought couch fastened to the wall, with a railing around it and
handles. It suggested a ship's bunk. There was a railing at convenient
height all around the wall.

I sought a hiding place. I saw just one--under the couch. It was
secluded enough. There was a grille-like lattice extending down from
the seat to the floor. I squeezed under one end, and lay wedged behind
the grille.

* * * * *

How much time passed I do not know. My thoughts were racing. Babs
would be coming.

I heard the distant approaching rumble of Polter's voice. Through the
grille I could see across the floor of the ten-foot cage to the front
lattice bars. Outside, there appeared a huge, pink-white, mottled
blob--Polter's hand, a ridged and pitted surface with great bristling
black stalks of hair.

The figure of Babs came through the cage doorway. Blessed normality!
The same slim little Babs who always stood, since we were both
matured, with her head about level with my shoulders.

The latticed door swung shut with a reverberating metallic clank. Babs
stood tense, clinging to the wall railing. I heard the blurred rumble
of Polter's voice.

"Hold tightly, my little Babs!"

The room lurched; went upward and sidewise with a wild dizzying swoop.
Babs clung; and I was wedged prone under the couch. Then the movement
stopped; there was a jolting, rocking, and outside I heard the clank
of metal. Polter was fastening the chains of the cage to his chest.

A white reflected glow now came through the bars.