linder 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 stone like 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, horrified effort. I could no more than writhe; and I
could not 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. Bab's 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 could not 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 gutteral voice. "That iss better."

* * * * *

They mounted to the platform. It seemed to me that they must have been
far away; they were very small. Abnormally small. 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 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. They were both little
figures down by the chair-leg. Then they began walking with swaying
steps toward the tiny railing of the white slab. The white reflection
from the slab plainly illumined then. Polter's arm was around Babs. I
had not realized how small they were until I saw Polter lift the rope
of the four-inch little fence, and he and Babs stooped and walked
under it. The fragment of quartz lay a foot from them in the center of
the white surface. They walked unsteadily toward it. But soon they
were running.

My horrified senses whir