me reaching in to seize her, but she
avoided them.

"Dr. Polter! Don't! You'll crush me!"

"Then come out on my hand."

He seemed annoyed. I had scrambled back to the doorway; I knew he
could not see me so long as the cage remained strapped to his shirt
front.

I whispered, "I can make it, Babs!"

Polter was apparently on one elbow, half turned on his side. From our
cage, the sloping gleaming white surface of his stiff glossy
shirt-bosom went down a steep incline. His belt was down there, and
the outward bulging curve of his lap--a spreading surface where I
could land like a scuttling insect, unobserved, if only Babs could
hold his attention.

I whispered vehemently. "Try it! Go out! Leave me! Keep talking to
him!"

She called instantly, "Very well, then. Bring your hand! Closer!
Carefully! It seems so high up here!"

* * * * *

She swung herself to his palm, and flung her arms about the great
pillar of his upcrooked finger. The bowl of his hand moved slowly
away. I heard her calling voice, and his overhead rumble.

I chanced it! I could not determine the exact position, or which way
he was looking.

Again I heard Bab's voice. "Careful, Dr. Polter. Don't let me fall!"

"Yes, little bird."

I let myself down from the tilted doorway, hung by my hands and
dropped. I struck the ramp-like yielding surface of his shirt-bosom. I
slid, tumbling, scrambling, and landed softly in the huge folds of his
trouser fabric. I was unhurt. The width of his belt, high as my body,
was near me. I shrank against it; I found I could cling to its upper
edge.

My hold came just in time. He shifted, and sat up. I was lifted with a
swoop of movement. When it steadied I saw above me the top of his
knee. His left leg was crooked, the foot drawn close to him. Babs was
perched up there on the knee summit. His right leg was outstretched. I
was at the right side of his belt. I could dart off along that curving
expanse of his leg and leap to the ground. If he would hold this
position! One of the pouches of his belt was near me. The vial in it
was black. The enlarging drug! I moved toward it.

But Babs was too high to jump from that summit of his crooked knee! I
think she saw me at his belt. I heard her voice.

"I cannot eat up here. It is too high. Oh, please be careful how you
move! I am so dizzy, so frightened! You move with such great jerks!"

He had what seemed a huge surface of bread and meat. H