e was breaking
oLf crumbs to put before her. I reached the pouch of his belt. The
vial was as long as my body. I tugged to try and lift it out.

* * * * *

All the giant contours of Polter's body shifted as he cautiously
moved. I clung. I saw that Babs was being held gently between his
thumb and forefinger. He lowered her to the ground, and she stood
beside the bread and meat he had placed there.

And she had the courage to laugh! "Why this--this is an enormous
sandwich! You will have to break it."

He was leaning over her, half turned on his left side. The vial came
free. I shoved it; but I could not control its weight. I pushed
desperately. It slid over the round brink of his right hip, and fell
behind him. I heard the tinkling thud of it down on the rocks.

There was no alarm. I could not chance leaping from his hip. I
scurried along the convex top of his outstretched leg, and beyond his
knee I jumped.

I landed safely. I could see the black vial back across the broken
rock surface, with the bulge of Polter's hip above it. I ran back and
reached the vial; tugged at its huge stopper. The cork began to yield
under my panting, desperate efforts. In a moment I would have a pellet
of the enlarging drug; make away with it; startle Polter so that Babs
might dart off and escape.

The huge stopper of the vial was larger than my head. It came suddenly
out. I flung it away, plunged in my hand, and seized an enormous round
pellet.

Then abruptly the alarm came, and I had not caused it! Polter ripped
out a startled, rumbling curse and sat upright. Under the curve of his
leg, I saw that Babs had been momentarily neglected. She was running.

Across the boulder-strewn plain, two tiny men had appeared. Polter had
seen them.

They were the enlarging figures of Dr. Kent and Alan!

CHAPTER XI

_The Combat of Size_

The astounded Polter was taken wholly by surprise. He could have had
no idea that anyone was following him. He thought he was alone with
the tiny Babs in this rock-strewn metal desert. What he saw as he
scrambled to his feet were four insect-size humans, two of them at a
distance, and two within reach of him, and all of them scampering in
different directions. The ground was littered with crags and boulders;
was ridged and pitted, pock-marked, with tiny crater-holes and caves.
The four scuttling figures almost instantly had disappeared from his
sight.

I did not see where B